Oudtshoorn. 14 October 2012. 06h45. Here is the text of the Chairperson Report delivered by Anton Bredell at yesterday’s DA provincial congress at CTICC.

On 6 March 2010 I was re-elected as Provincial Chairperson at the Congress in Hartenbos.

The biggest task was to keep unity in the Western Cape and build the Party. This was the challenging task of the Elected Executive with Theuns Botha as Provincial Leader.

The three main challenges were:

1. To prevent in house fighting that will prevent us from serving the public which is our main task.

2. To create space for open debates within the Party;

3. To apply strong discipline within the Party. The DA must focus on common factors that bind us together, because we are the most diverse party in the country. Our members and leaders understand where we are headed, and this will dominate everything we do. We may differ, but we will not destroy one another, because the Party, and our goals, are greater than any individual. There will always be differences, but what counts, is how we differ from one another.

I stand here before you today mindful of the fact that we have as the DA team, brilliantly led by Helen Zille, our National Leader, achieved new heights over the past two years.
I mention this because we need to continue our efforts in this regard and focus even more firmly on continuing this growth and success going into the 2014 General Election.
The National Leader, summed it up recently when she said we must stop asking ourselves if the ANC can be beaten at the ballot box, but rather when we are going to do it.

The DA has always stood up firmly for the “rule of law” and “accountability“; and if we look at the other eight provinces in our country there is no doubt that this is the bedrock of a competent and successful province which in turn is driven by strong political leadership.

Elections
If we reflect on the past two years it would be careless of me not to congratulate all of you on the many successes we have achieved.

We need, to every now and then, take a step back and say, “well done”, because its thoroughly earned and we should acknowledge it.

By-elections
Successes in the by-elections show that the DA is not about to rest on its laurels and it is good to reflect on the successes.

Since the last Provincial Congress held on 6th March 2010 we have participated in 25 by-elections in the Western Cape and were victorious in 16 of these by-elections.

In the process we took 5 wards off the ANC, two from ICOSA and lost one to the ANC.

Service delivery protests are politically inspired by the ANC as well as the ANC youth league in our province. We are dealing with an opposition party that has run out of all options and are past the point of desperation in trying to merely keep the ANC alive in our province.

Our councillors must not give the people reasons to strike and protest. Therefor it is important to get our house in order. We need to get our ward committees running properly, as well as our feed-back sessions with our communities.

There is very little doubt that the ANC’s cadre deployment across our country has been a massive failure and this has been admitted openly by the National Executive of the ANC.

The performance of ANC dominated Municipal Councils in the other eight provinces bear testimony to this and corruption needs to be dealt with very firmly.

More recently we have seen that the ANC actions have now taken a further turn in their efforts to maintain their stranglehold on government and in the process have again exhibited the total disregard for “rule of law” and accountability.
At municipal council level across the country, they continue to ignore legal judgments against them and even disregard majority votes that go against them in council.

The DA is not resting on its laurels and never has. We are the “Government in Waiting” because we are the only alternative to the ANC. The ANC has no sense of value anymore and this is a very significant flaw in their make-up.

We, on the other hand, stand by the values we selected as a Provincial government and it’s a set of values we need to repeat regularly.

Our citizens in our province and the rest of our country deserve better and we have no doubt that the DA is the only political player that can and will deliver.

Winston Churchill once said shortly after becoming Prime Minister in Britain that “Healthy citizens are the greatest asset any country can have” something which we in the DA also subscribe to and we also believe it’s the constitutional right of every one of our citizens.

In addition to now controlling SALGA (WC), the DA arranged a number of leader forums and women’s days that were very well attended.

Our Provincial Council and Provincial Executive meetings as well as Mayors/Speakers Forums were all highly successful and was a great source of the exchange of ideas and best management practises amongst the various municipalities,

In closing I want to express a very special word of thanks and appreciation to our Provincial Leader, Theuns Botha, and the members of the Provincial Executive Committee.

We have worked hard over the past two years and it has been a privilege for me, as Chairperson, to work with a team like this. We were also ably supported by a very strong and dedicated provincial team.

I would also like to thank the DA youth as well as DAWN and LEAD for their role in promoting the DA’s growth.

Finally allow me to express my sincere thanks towards the Federal structure of the DA, Chairperson of the Federal Council Mr James Selfe and Federal Chairperson, Dr Wilmot James, for their leadership and example that has been set for all to follow.

(Sms from the congress, by @carienduplessis: “Anton Bredell giving chairperson’s report. People just clapped, apparently in the hope that he had finished reading.” Ed.)

Post navigation

4 thoughts on “Anton Bredell at DAWCC”

Bredell, ek haal jou aan ..”The DA has always stood up firmly for the “rule of law” and “accountability“; and if we look at the other eight provinces in our country there is no doubt that this is the bedrock of a competent and successful province which in turn is driven by strong political leadership.

To be a local counselor and to be a member of a national political party is like working for 2 bosses. If you do not have a private agenda, you won’t know how to listen to and nothing will get done. However to obtain your own goals you play the one of against , or blame the other. At this time the local politicians are not working for the voters but either looking after curent own interest, or own future interests.
If the DAceivers just reread their own promises, and party statements, they will know why they will not have a easy time to win elections. A old saying, you can deceive all the people sometimes, you can deceive some people all the time, but you can’t deceive all the people all the time. DA you asked a chance, I gave it, you blown it.

The ANC learned on the hard way that the days are over that they may rest on their laurels and expect the entire black populations vote. Last year’s local elections in the Western Cape were a rude awakening for them. The DA will learn the same lesson in Plett on December 5th. Ward 2 is a traditional strong hold for them, the heart of the DA. No one likes a broken heart. What will happen depends entirely if the people will finally say enough is enough and send a strong message to the politicians. This will be the most hotly contested by-election in our country’s history. Very exciting times!